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Two Poems

James Laughlin

Issue 130, Spring 1994

The Wood Nymph

Sometimes when I am working In the forest clearing brush from The hemlocks, a wood nymph approaches Walking her two small dogs.Soft-footed and undulant she glides Through the trees, a figure of grace, A nymph of surpassing beauty.Sometimes in her passage she’ll stop To greet me. Xaire, she says, xaire Broté; greetings to you, mortal man. Clear-voiced, she speaks as if She were singing. She tells of The spirits that inhabit the marshes. She is the guardian of those who Live in bogs and wetlands. She knows their natures and their Histories. Formosa et docta est, Fair of form and learned: She never identifies herself But I think she may be Melissa of Kalymnos, the child of Athena By a mortal named Euclidon; she Was renowned for her singing.